Ojai to Denver
by wonamini
Summary: Isaac only makes it to Denver before calling Nora again. Chapter 1 of many more to come - Will see how the relationship unfolds
1. Chapter 1

"Hello love

Title: Ojai to Denver

Post Episode 13 – Home Alone

Fiction Rated: K

Characters: Nora and Isaac

"Hello love."

"Isaac? What are you….Is everything ok? Is your flight alright?" Nora was shocked to hear from Isaac so soon after he left Los Angeles.

"Nora, I am a sixty-five year old man and I have not even made it half way across the country without thinking of you." Isaac held a picture of Nora in his head while he focused in on her voice, letting it drown out the commotion of the Denver airport.

"Isaac," she was blushing even though he was more than a thousand miles away. "You don't have to flatter me. You are on your way to DC and who knows when…" Nora's voice gradually became more strained and came to an awkward silence.

"Nora, remember just four hours ago , you told me not to say goodbye. Yes, I have accepted a position at Georgetown University. Flatter, I do not. Rather, I speak of what I see and feel and am experiencing for the first time in a long time. We will see each other again."

"Isaac, I have my family."

"As do I. Nora, I understand your reasoning, and I do not expect you to move across the country from your comfort zone. I not only enjoyed kissing your neck, just below your ear, not only holding you close to me and dancing to jazz music in your kitchen, not only waking up with you curled in my side, but I also enjoyed having great conversations and debates with you. Please, tell me that three thousand miles has to keep us from that as well."

Nora's jaw had dropped on the other side of the phone. How she could dismiss Isaac's advances easier in person than over the telephone she hadn't a clue. "I enjoyed my time spent with you, even though I would have previously considered you the lowest form of life, being a Republican political operative and all."

Isaac smiled big and couldn't help but laugh, "Discussion just like this. A woman who will help keep me honest and tell it like it is."

"But I am in California. You can get party critiques right down the road at the Democratic Headquarters." Nora begun to feel exasperated, partly tired from the emotional roller coaster of the day, partly releasing anxiety over her DC decision, partly longing for a man that she thought she was beginning to love.

"Nora, my next door neighbor is one of the biggest, richest, most well-connected Democrats in the country. I do not even need to go as far as the DNC HQ to be overanalyzed and picked apart from policy on down to character flaws. I just need to walk next door. But, I LISTEN to what you have to say. I take it in and "

The sound of silence took hold of the space between Ojai and Denver.

"My plane is boarding, love. I enjoy the sound of your voice, the silence of your thoughts, and the rhythm of our conversation. Distance does not need to deter us from keeping that up. Promise that we will continue to talk?"

"Promise." The word popped out of Nora's mouth, perhaps, because the rhythm of the conversation forced it out, perhaps, because she did not want what she had with Isaac to end, or perhaps it was a childish gesture. Who makes promises these days, anyways?

Interrupting her train of thought, Isaac responded, "Wonderful. Then, I will talk with YOU later."

Nora, still stunned at her one word response to Isaac's request, hadn't been able to respond before Isaac hung up the phone. Promise. She knew it was more than childish fancies. Outside of her children, the last person she had made a promise to was William Walker.

Hanging up the phone, Isaac took his airline ticket out and handed it to the United agent before boarding the plane.

"How pathetic," he muttered to himself. He had only made it to his connecting flight in Denver before he called Nora Walker again. It was only four hours since he had left LAX and talked with her. She already sounded shocked to hear from him, as if she had it in her head that she would never see or hear from Isaac again.

"But, how wonderful." Isaac's thoughts turned to the candle light dinners, the walk along Nora's property at dusk, holding hands, catching a glimpse of Nora's face and smile and feeling completely at ease even though there was the chaos of a campaign all around him. And her voice.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 will follow


	2. Chapter 2

"Dinner, Johnny Carson, and the Blackberry"

"**Dinner, Johnny Carson, and the Blackberry"**

It was Friday evening and the Walker house was beginning to fill up. The noise level had risen, but the sound of Van Morrison in the background could still be heard.

Summer had not encroached upon the Ojai evenings just yet and the Walker crew were oscillating from the back porch to the kitchen. Nora had been in the kitchen since noon of that day. This weekend was a long one, with Memorial Day tacked at the end. Nora was not only cooking for the entire Walker clan for the evening, but also priming food for the rest of the weekend.

Kitty, Robert, Sarah and her kids had all just arrived at the same time, the last ones to arrive.

"Paige! Cooper! Oh, you two are growing like weeds." Nora gave them big hugs, as they trekked through the kitchen.

Nora then embraced Sarah and whispered, "How was the pick up from Joe's?"

"It's been progressively getting better as time goes on. Thanks mom." Sarah let her mom finish her hug with a tight squeeze because Sarah new she probably needed it.

"Grammy, it smells good in here!" Cooper said, with a big smile on his face.

Norah smiled, "That's because it is good my dear!" She gently toughed the tip of Cooper's nose as he and Paige made their way to the den to get out their uncle's X-Box.

"Yeah mom," Justin came in from the porch, followed by Rebecca. "It does smell good in here. What's cooking?"

Nora, always at her happiest when busy in the kitchen with her kids around her, took the praise in stride. "Well, while I am waiting for the Coq de Vin to finish and y'all are milling in here we can start the evening with the Edamame." She passed the shallow Japanese bowls filled with the salted green Edamame beans to her astonished children.

"Mother!" Kitty exclaimed. "Edamame as hors d'ourve with Coq de Vin as entrée? What's going on?" Kitty eyed her mother.

"Yeah," Sarah chimed in. "Crossing continents in one meal? This from a mother who insisted her daughters go to cotillion classes and emphasized never to divert regionally within one meal so as not to cause discomfort to your guests."

Nora continued cleaning in her kitchen and occasionally eating Edamame. She was not phased at all by the ribbing from her children.

"Variety and change never hurt anyone." Nora casually responded. Not giving in a bit to her children, even though there might have been some truth to what they were saying about her.

"Kitty and Sarah did not buy the sudden change in their mother's culinary behavior, but they were distracted by the rising controversy in the Walker kitchen.

"You shouldn't celebrate the end of Carson's reign on the Tonight Show." Tommy had reprimanded his younger brother, Kevin.

"Yeah, October so many years ago is when Johnny Carson first came on the air. Maybe celebration should wait till then." Robert chimed in on the Walker dispute.

"Listen," Kevin was getting frustrated, "I have a weekend's worth of Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show and I officially am commandeering the TV in the family room for the entire weekend." Kevin finished almost with the defiance and rightousness of a three year old.

"Johnny Carson," Nora stuck her head up over the counter, as she was checking how the main dish was coming along in the oven. "Did someone say Johnny? I sure did like Carson."

"Mom agrees with me," Kevin piped in, "and her vote trumps all y'alls."

"There were some great Carson moments." Nora continued her path down memory lane.

"And I have them all right here," Kevin padded his backpack.

"I think one of the sweetest moments on TV was…"

"…when Bette Midler sang "One for my Baby." Kevin and Nora finished the sentenced together.

"Oh, that was beautiful." Nora was almost tearing up as was Kevin.

As Justin was just about to gag at the fact that he would be spending a weekend to honor veterans with his mother, his gay brother, and them crying over Bette Midler, a gay icon, the sound of a vibrating phone had all cell phone owners in the room searching for where the sound was coming from.

Justin picked up the guilty phone. "It's not mine. Whose pink Blackberry?" He passed it to Sarah.

"It's a Pinkberry Justin. Not mine, though." Sarah said as she passed it to Rebecca.

"Not mine," Rebecca replied and passed it to Kitty.

"Not mine, either. Ok, Kevin – You're the only other girl in the room." Kitty smiled.

"Hey! I resent that comment and it's not mine. Though I do like the look of the phone."

The phone vibrated again, indicating another text message. As Rebecca was about to call Paige in, thinking that she was suffering from early signs of dementia because she never remembered buying her daughter a blackberry, when Nora spotted Kevin holding her phone.

"Oh, you found my phone! Thank you, sweetie!" Nora kissed her son on the forehead, as she took the phone.

"Mom!" At least three of her children exclaimed in astonishment together.

"When did you buy a Blackberry?" asked Justin.

"And since when have you started texting?" Kitty and Sarah said in usison.

Nora looked up at her kids, only half listening, "Oh, this. I, um, have had it for about a month or so." She switched her attention back to her phone. Viewing her past two messages brought a smile to her face.

"Mother!" Sarah said in disbelief. "You're blushing!"

"What's going on?" Kitty asked.

"It's just a phone," Nora said casually as she brought her attention back to her children.

Nora switched her attention back to her phone as it vibrated. Reading the message she let out a little giggle and started texting back.

Almost the entire dinner party or extended Walker family could not believe their eyes. Robert was astonished as well, but was equally amused at the Walker children's, including his wife's, expressions.

"Nora," Robert said calmly with a bemused smile, "To whom, may I ask, are you texting?"

"Oh, Robert, you are such a dear." Nora said as she put her phone down on the counter, finished with her texting and ready to serve the main course in the dining room. "Will you be so kind and pick up the Edamame bowls and put them in the sink for me?"

"Sure Nora," Robert replied calmly. "But you avoided answering my question." Robert finished with a smirk.

Oh, yeah, that," Nora motioned to the Blackberry sitting on the counter. "No one special." She continued carrying the main course, dish by dish, on into the dining room.

With Nora out of the room, all of her kids sat in silence looking at the "pinkberry" on the counter.

"Who's going to do it?" Justin asked but keeping his eyes on the phone.

"No," Sarah said. "That would be an invasion of privacy." She continued to feign injustice as she was trying to rise from the stool to see if she could see the phone from where she was sitting.

"Didn't mom used to read your love letters during high school Sarah, just to make sure there was no hanky panky going on?" Kitty asked, with eyes still on the phone.

"Did she?" Sarah finally averted her eyes from the phone. "I never knew that. Kitty how did you know?"

"We shared a room together," Kiity said in a dead pan voice refusing to take her eyes from the phone.

"I'll check." Robert hopped off his stool and went towards the phone.

"Of course, the Republican in the room violates the Fourth Ammendment." Kevin quips, half-repressed frustration, half half-hearted.

Robert picked up the phone and maneuvered to see the prior messages.

"Kevin, puh-leese, the campaign is over." Kitty only then noticed the smirk on her husband's face. "Robert who is…"

"Who is hungry?" Nora said as she came back from the dining room.

Robert cleared out the phone and slid it back on to the counter behind his back. "Yes, I'm hungry." He said with an angelic smile.

As Nora came into the kitchen her children followed Robert to the dining room.

"Who was it?" They all whispered.

"Yeah who?" Kitty cozied up to her husband.

"I don't believe I should say, as that would be a viscous invasion of privacy." Robert said as he took his seat at the table.

"Come on!" They said in usison.

"I can't believe you. Republican." Muttered Kevin.

Nora came in the dining room. "What's all the commotion?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing."

"Ok," Nora said, but not buying it.

"The hen is delicious, Nora." Robert said with a smile.

"Thank you Robert." Nora replied.

After ten minutes of just Nora, or Nora and Robert talking over dinner, Nora finally had had enough of the awkward silence from her children.

"Okay, what is wrong? Why all the silence?" Nora asked.

They all shrugged or murmured that nothing was wrong.

"I think they are all anxious to learn to whom you were texting." Robert said and then stuck a fork full of coq de vin in his mouth. Kitty kicked her husband under the table.

"Is that what this is about?" Nora asked in frustration and amusement.

"Paige came out with a blue box in her hand, "Grandma, I found this box under the couch."

"Oh, thank you honey." Nora kissed her granddaughter on the head. Nora set the box beside her on the table.

"A Tiffany's Box?" Sarah exclaimed. "Mother, what is going on here?"

"Nothing." Nora took a sip of the Merlot.

"Mom, texting, jewelry. You call that nothing?" Kevin said.

"Nothing is going on. And there was never any jewelry in here." She lifted the empty box. "About a month ago, Issac got fed up with my refusal to buy some technical gadget…"

"A Blackberry?" Robert offered.

"Yes, a blackberry. Thank you Robert." All eyes darted with disdain towards the Republican Senator. "And so he had sent me this," picking up the Pinkberry, "in this box. That's it. Now can we eat?"

"You and Issac?" Kevin asked quizzically.

"Mom, I didn't know you and Issac were still seeing each other." Kitty replied.

"Oh, come now. There is no "me ad Issac" and we are not "seeing" each other."

"A Tiffany's box, mom? That is not nothing." Kevin remarked.

Nora finished her Merlot. "Sweetheart, no double negatives at the dinner table, please."

The table was silent. Shocked with their mother's unabashed sass, tonight.

"Okay, so we can finish our dinner and get onto Mr. Carson, I will explain why these two items have no significance or," Nora cocked her head, "the kind my angelic kids are insinuating." She looked over at Tommy. "Another glass please." Tommy poured the Merlot. "Thank you. Okay, when Issac left for D.C. he wanted to continue our great political conversations."

"You represent totally opposite political spectrums." Sarah interrupted.

"Yes, honey, we do. And that's exactly why we talk. I am the devil's advocate or antagonist. If I see a candidate of his or a sound bite from whatever campaign he happens to be working on, I'll give him an open, unfettered critique.

"What does this have to do with the texting and the box?" Sarah was still skeptical about Issac's intentions.

"Ah, yes. Well, I would call at times when he would be in meetings occasionally. Once he was in a Senate Committee meeting." Nora bemusingly reminisced.

Robert eyed Nora, remembering an occasion, about a month ago, when he was in the middle of a Ways and Means Committee meeting and a cell phone went off. A big no no in Chambers. Robert was shocked when his past Communications Consultant was the culprit.

"So, anyway," Nora continued, "One day after the Senate incident, this box arrived with this Pinkberry in it." Nora started picking dishes up from the table. "Now, on to Carson."

The whole crew followed and got lost in conversation in other matters of importance. After about two hours of Carson, Nora excused herself for the night, saying that a day in the kitchen had left her exhausted. She bid all of her kids goodnight and took her sleeping grandkids to the guest room.

On her was to bed she passed through the kitchen and picked up her "pinkberry." As she was checking the time on her phone she ran into Robert.

"Oh, excuse me Robert," Nora slipped the phone into her pocket.

"Isaac's a good man." Robert smiled.

"Huh, oh, yeah, well goodnight, Robert." Nora was normally very good about hiding any insecurities, but Robert was aware of the "pinkberry" visible from her pocket.

With a kind smile, "Goodnight, Nora."

Nora was settled into bed. Her phone on the pillow beside her. After a big yawn, Nora rolled on her side and looked at the time on her phone. 10:13pm. She set it back down and gently closed her eyes.

In a few minutes her phone vibrated, indicating a text message.

Isaac: And how was dinner?

Nora: Delishous as usual.

Isaac: Menu?

Nora: Edamame

Isaac: Great start. Reminds me of our trip down to Chinatown in Los Angeles.

Nora: Yes, that was a good night.

Isaace: Good night and good morning

Nora: ISAAC!

Isaac: Yes?! Continue

Nora: Followed by Coq de Vin

Isaac: Ur killing me Nora. My mouth is watering for French hen.

Nora: It did come out great, I have to say.

Isaac: And my mind is on our night in Napa Valley

Nora: Oh, yes, the wine was great there.

Isaac: As were you

Nora blushed, again.

Isaac: So down to business.

Nora: Yes sir.

Isaac: Were you able to catch Senator Lugar's speech to his consitutuents on C-Span?

Nora: I was.

Isaac: And?

Nora: Well, I've always had a soft spot for Lugar, though Republican, he has been such a sensible and moderate Senator.

Isaac: The speech, Nora. The speech.

Nora: Okay, well it was great except in parts.

Isaac: Such as?

Nora: The intro and layout was great.

Isaac: Thank you

Nora: But then it was as if he and his foreign policy agenda were rushed at the end.

Isaac: Do tell

Nora: There has to be a middle ground between emperialism and isolationism.

Isaac: Yes

Nora: And it wasn't in his speech, today. I expected more out of you, Isaac.

Isaac: Whoa! Hold up there woman

Nora couldn't help but smile and shake her head.

Nora: Explain

Isaac: The Republican Presumtive Presidential Nominee's communication director just happened to be in town and at the meeting this afternoon

Nora: And?

Nora was not going to cede an inch on total open diplomacy

Isaac: Three marvelous paragraphs on the importance of diplomacy were cut by said political operative

Nora: That bastard

Isaac: Language, please

Nora Sorry! Are you still in Illinois?

Isaac: No, flew back to DC tonight

Nora: Well it's almost 2am your time. Get some sleep sir

Isaac: I wish I could – in a meeting with all top tier RNC communication directors

Nora: You're in a meeting right now?

Isaac: Yes ma'am

Nora: Isaac you should be concentrating

Isaac: I am – on you!

Nora: ISAAC!

Isaac: Woman?

Nora: It's late – but do tell – who's at the table there – Rove?

Isaac: Tsk tsk – just because you have my heart does not mean you can be let in on RNC secrets – and we banished Rove to the curb years ago

Nora: Aww! Well want to know who is here with me?

Isaac: There's someone there with you?

Isaac cleared his throat and shifted in his leather chair within the RNC strategy room. Nora had his attention.

Nora: Yes

Isaac: Whom?

Nora: A Mr. Carson

Isaac: Ha! Yes Robert told me about the Walker-Johnny Carson-Memorial Day Weekend

Nora: Yes… I have snuck one of my favorite episodes up to my room

Isaac: Which is?

Nora: Bette Midler

Isaac: One more for the Road

Nora: Yes

Isaac: Johnny Carson was a good man

Nora: As you could be

Isaac: Ha! Only if I were a democrat right?

Nora: No… only if you have the power or influence to keep in the three paragraphs on diplomacy next speech

Isaac couldn't help but let out a smile in the tight lipped midnight power meeting.

Isaac: I think it would be easier to sign on as a Democrat

Nora: Ha! Well you got your work cut out for you.

Isaac: You'll keep me on task

Nora: Hey, do you think any of those not-to-be-named in your meeting are aware that today, May 22nd is the anniversary of Johnny Carson's last televised episode of the Tonight Show?

Isaac: I doubt it and am certain that if they were aware of such occasion - they do not give it the same glorious honor of all three days – the Walker Way

Nora: No, I doubt it

Isaac: You're tired

Nora: Yes – you need sleep too

Isaac: I need you

Nora: Goodnight Isaac

Isaac: Till we meet again

Nora: Tomorrow night?

Isaac: 10:15pm same time – every night

Nora: Okay – now I need sleep

Isaac: I need you

Nora: Goodnight Isaac

Nora set her phone on the pillow beside her. She propped her head up so that she could watch Bette Midler serenade Johnny Carson for a final time. On TV she was watching a definite good man. As she close her eyes, she couldn't help but think of another man who definitely had the potential to be a good man.


End file.
